1 Division of Metabolic and Endocrine, Drug Products, Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Rockville, Maryland
Recently a father wrote the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) concerning the death of his child from accidental ingestion of Lomotil tablets. He bore the blame for leaving the "pills" where the child had been able to reach them. He had thought they were a harmless medication for diarrhea.
On December 3, 1969, the New York Times1 carried a column entitled "Children Periled by an Adult Drug," commenting on a paper delivered at the American Medical Association's clinical session. The article stated that "children who accidentally swallow a few tablets of a commonly prescribed antidiarrheal drug can get severe breathing difficulty, lose consciousness and sometimes die. . ."